Ridley Scott Loves Space
Having two massive blockbuster franchises occupy the same universe doesn’t happen very often, but happened for Scott thanks to some sly phrasing in interviews about a “Ridleyverse” and copious Easter Eggs in these two seminal franchise debuts.
What are Alien and Blade Runner
Roger is a grey, anthropomorphic, sociopathic alien that lives with The Smith family here on Earth in this prime time animated sit-com.
What is American Dad
First published in 1959, Robert Heinlein’s novel was “adapted” in the late 90’s more or less in name alone, with one focusing on campy fascist propaganda, while the other offers a heady, distant take on the military complex and individualism while part of the machine, with both stomping bugs along the way.
What is Starship Troopers
Based on this 2011 sci-fi novel that earnestly tried to nail the accuracy of the science in its fictional tale, Scott, wanting to maintain its credibility, consulted with NASA scientists to make sure the production stayed true to the realism, all except the entire setup piece about a massive storm stranding Matt Damon on a foreign planet.
What is The Martian
Stationed here on our woefully insignificant planet, this rag tag group of alien military observers finds themselves assimilating with human society while they gather data to send back to their leader The Big Giant Head in this 90’s sitcom.
What is Third Rock From the Sun
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are up to their old tricks, taking another popular book series, in this case the Chinese Remembrance of Earth’s Past, and producing a TV show out of it named after the first release, all the while raking in awards and a greenlit season 2 and 3 Netflix for this series.
What is 3 Body Problem
After being shown the work of this Swiss painter, Scott lobbied the production team to hire him to design the main baddie, and chose his work Necronom IV to be the main influence.
Who is HR Giger
Initially released as a way to cash in on Star Wars fever, Happy Days produced an episode featuring fan favorite alien Mork, portrayed by Robin Williams, and would eventually go on to become the full fledged show Mork & Mindy which would be canceled before he could return to this planet.
What is the planet Ork
Proving Denis Villeneuve was the perfect director to helm a Dune trilogy, this 2016 adaptation of the novella “Story of Your Life” was a resounding critical darling, netting multiple award nominations and offered deep thinking sci-fi fans yet another win.
What is Arrival
Directing his first franchise follow up to the insanely successful Alien, 2012’s Prometheus introduced us to this uber advanced species, and according to the lore, directly responsible for creating humans, alongside the titular, troublesome “alien”.
What are the Engineers
Portrayed by this comedically sharp, outer space inclined actor, a shapeshifting alien that can only be seen in his true form by a ridiculously small fraction of the human population, crash lands and then resides in a teeny, tiny mountain village that just so happens to have one of these all-seeing tykes running around trying to expose him to the locals.
Who is Alan Tudyk
Caught up in the cogs of Marvel’s bloated rise to fame and fortune, Malibu Comics was purchased in 1994, two years after the rights were optioned to make the first of four films in this sleek, comedic sci-fi franchise, of which it has recently come out that Sony Pictures failed an attempt at a crossover release with the rebooted Jump Street series.
What is The Men In Black
Produced by Scott, this TV mini-series was modernized from a 1969 novel written by sci-fi magnate Michael Crichton about an organism that hitches a ride on a fallen satellite that wreaks havoc on the small town it landed in, and the scientists brought in to study it.
What is The Andromeda Strain
More hidden alien shenanigans on prime time TV, this show focused a little closer to the infamous crash landing and showcases three alien teenagers trying to live their lives in a sleepy suburban town, and featured Katherine Heigl and Tom Hanks early in their careers as teenagers grappling with their alien and human based hormones.
What is Roswell
It’s not often you get three specific titles to reference one release, but leave it to a Tim Cruise film to be that complicated: starting out as a light manga, 2004’s All You Need Is Kill was optioned for a script in 2009 under the name Edge of Tomorrow, and was released in 2014 to a lukewarm box office reception, which led Warner Bros to make the home media push hinge on this movie poster tagline for the film, acting as a soft reset to drive more sales, resulting in many online resources retitling the film permanently.
What is Live. Die. Repeat